New Orleans Cop Shoots Man in Head and Doesn’t Report it

The shooting and killing of young black men by police officers seems to have now become a sport.

According to one report, a black man was shot in the head during a routine traffic stop in Algiers, and the New Orleans Police Department didn’t even report it. Bossip reports via NOLA News the incident might have remained undercover still had it not been for an article published on their news site. It is in response to that article, that NOPD finally issued a written statement saying that Armand Bennett, 26, “was shot” during the traffic stop, and an officer, unnamed by the department, suffered a minor contusion on the right hand.

Bennett, whose injuries is said to be “not life threatening” is still recovering in an intensive care unit, said attorney Nandi Campbell, who visited him in the hospital.

Campbell said that the man’s brother heard two shots fired by a female officer, and that the two of them were confronted by officers with their guns drawn while parked near the Tall Timbers subdivision, where one of the men resides.

There are few details about what actually prompted the confrontation; although the NOPD did reveal on Monday that an officer was wounded on the job, in what the department described as an “officer needs assistance” call. Despite receiving requests for information and records, the police department did not disclose that anyone was shot, nor did they respond to submissions for public records requests by NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune.

By Wednesday, the department had not provided the report. The NOPD only confirmed the shooting after this story was published.

The NOPD did say that once Bennett is released from the hospital, he will be booked on five outstanding warrants from Orleans and Jefferson parishes, including possession of marijuana, illegal possession of a weapon, resisting an officer and criminal damage to property.